Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Russia continued bombing civilians in Syria despite a truce agreed the night before in Munich.
Diplomats agreed Thursday to work towards a temporary “cessation of hostilities” to be implemented in a week’s time. Foreign ministers from the International Syria Support Group meeting in Munich made the deal to secure deliveries of humanitarian aid to besieged Syrian towns and villages.
However, Russia continued to carry out airstrikes on civilian areas in Syria.
“Despite the agreement we made last night, Russia continued bombing the civilians,” Cavusoglu said in a panel discussion on the EU and the refugee crisis at the Munich conference. “They killed 16 civilians this morning.”
The Turkish foreign minister described how the Russian attacks and a ground offensive by regime forces had created a new wave of refugees as tens of thousands of people flee towards Turkey.
“They [the Russians] have been targeting schools and hospitals as well,” he said. “Therefore these people fled from these Russian bombings.”
Russian warplanes conducted a number airstrikes on cities and towns across Syrian on Friday, the most violent of which hit rebel-held areas in Homs, Aleppo, Latakia and Dara’a provinces. The strikes caused a horrible massacre which claimed the lives of 16 civilians in the town of Al-Ghantou north of Homs on Friday morning.
The Syrian Coalition said that these attacks represented a “a clear indication of how Russia perceives the Munich ‘truce’ agreement.” It stressed that the Russian bombardment is designed to pop up the Assad regime and its allied foreign militias as well as to force more civilians out of their homes into Turkey and Europe. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Anadolu Agency)
